The doom and gloom of winter is creeping up on me. It is cold outside, dark when I get to work and dark when I leave. There is snow everywhere, which in turn changes to ice, and I don’t like ice! So I thought what better way to take my mind off things, than to make one of my favourite meals to have whenever I go abroad. French style mussels!

To be honest, this is the first time I have used natural mussels (not the farmed ones). These little beauties have a beard that you have to remove which does take a while, but the flavour of these things is incredible and fresh. Try to get these whenever you are cooking mussels. Anyway, let me give you guys the recipe.

Ingredients

1kg live mussels (preferably de l’océan)

25g butter

100ml dry white wine

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 shallot

handful rough chopped parsley

First things first, you need to clean the mussels. Empty the bag into a bowl, run each mussel under a cold tap and remove the beard. This is the small collection of hairs usually on one side of the mussel, remove it with a side to side motion, carefully does it! If any of the mussels are open, run them under the cold tap for a few seconds and put them on the side, if they close they are good to eat, any that do not close, through them away!

After the long task of cleaning and de bearding the mussels, chop the shallot and garlic into fine slices and gently cook for 4 minutes in the butter.

When they become slightly transparent, turn the heat up, add the mussels and the white wine and cover. Steam for 3-8 minutes, until they have opened. Any that have not opened, do not eat them! Whilst they steam, why not pour yourself a glass of wine? Well, it is a french dish right!

Serve in a nice big bowl and top with the chopped parsley and dig in, remember the extra bowl for the shells.

Perfect on their own with some crusty bread. I added spring onion and a little chili to mine, what did you add? Would be great to hear from you in the comments below! au revoir